Harbor Hospital in Baltimore, MD - Internal Medicine

[Sree Cheruku]

I'm going to be starting my Internal Medicine rotation at Harbor hospital on Monday - and I'll obviously post my experience here when I'm done. But here's some info from a Saba student:

"It is hard to beleive that this 12 week internal medicine rotation is ending this friday here at Harbor Hospital Center. It is a very good atmosphere for learning and everyone I have come in contact with has tried to provide a good environment for learning and answering questions. The student morning report is excellent and you learn a great deal with many many cases. ( about 2 to 2 1/2 hours per day.) Most every resident and intern in this hospital has scored well above a 90 on step 1 and step 2 so there is no shortage of smart people who can answer your questions. I can honestly say I can read Chest films, EKGs, Blood Gases, CT chest and abdomen, Diagnose and treat Bread and Butter Abdominal, Cardiac, and Pulmonary cases. Interpretation of Labs is starting to become second nature. You learn alot in 90 days thats for sure. By the time you are finished you are more than able to begin your review for internal medicine for Step 2. I have read blueprints for internal medicine during the rotation and have started doing review questions from NMS and Blueprints and batting about 80% so between the rotation and the blueprint book the teaching has been more than adequate."

Here's some info from another Saba student:

"I started clinicals on monday at Harbor Hospital in
Baltimore for internal medicine. The rotation is organized and the residents are top notch. My intern is doing a transitional year at Harbor and is starting Opthamology Residency at Johns Hopkins in July 2003 so he is no slouch. We start at about 7:30 and on average most of us finish at 5:00. The call schedule is every 4 days and depending on your intern will depend on if they let you go home around 11pm or if you are staying the night. Call is 7 days per week for medical students. On days you are on call you can wear scrubs and white lab coat and on other days shirt and tie and white lab coat. You get roughly 3 hours of lectures and presentations per day. You usually round in the am for about 1 hour and round in pm for an hour or so. The intern assigns you a patient or two that you work up so you get good hands on, but of course you follow on all of his patients . Every 2 weeks you rotate thru a different department and get a new intern and attending which is good. You do 2 weeks of ICU which demands long hours and guaranteed spending the night when on call and call for ICU is Q 3 . You do 2 weeks of Telemetry also. There are a total of 6 teams or departments that you go thru but 4 of the teams are the general medical floors. Harbor has decent food at very good prices. Gotta run will write later."

Hope this helps.

[NicSTX]

Yaaaaaaaaaaaay sree!!! I'll see you there, I'm doing my pre-clinicals there.

Let me know where you plan on living, we're trying to get all of our housing in the same area if you're interested.

[Sree Cheruku]

wow, i forgot that the pre-clinical semester is in baltimore now.

im in brooklyn, MD which is 3 minutes away from the hospital, its not the best area to live in, but its pretty convenient.

i have the hospital's housing list, which includes both apartments and private homes for rent. lemme know if you want me to email it to you.

[NicSTX]

what times do you have to be there?

[Sree Cheruku]

im assuming 7:30 - 5 when you're not on call, and overnight if you are

but for you guys doing your pre-clinicals, it can't be all that bad, maybe 4-6 hours a day max - like we had to in Miami

[DOCplucinski]

hey Sree, is this your first rotation or have you done others?

[NicSTX]

nah our schedule is MUCH different from miami - it's currently 8-12 hospital, 1-3:30 office hours. Fridays are case presentations and mondays i think are something else

in miami they're only required 120 hrs/semester apparently (so i've been told by someone going to miami)

We're going to try to talk to them and ask that we only have an 8-12 schedule... so we can study for our step while learning at the hospital...

hectic huh?

[Sree Cheruku]

hey Sree, is this your first rotation or have you done others?

i did family medicine in jackson park

t's currently 8-12 hospital, 1-3:30 office hours.

that's a heck of a lot of hours. i mean the clinical experience at that hospital is great but it's not a substitute for actual step 1 reading. sucks for you

[DOCplucinski]

what'd you think of jackson park?

[Sree Cheruku]

They sent me to a remote clinic an hour away from the hospital where there were no doctors supervising me, so I didn't learn very much. The PA who was in charge of my rotation wasn't really interested in teaching, so following her around was awkward. But, I made the most of it. I stayed out of her hair, took advantage of the fact that I only had to work 5 hours a day and got the rotation done. I'm glad it's over.

I wouldn't recommend Jackson Park unless you are looking for an easy rotation with few work hours and lots of free time.